UNA SEMANA DE JAZZ INTERNACIONAL

Along with the week of dance from Spain, we have the first ever International Jazz week in the Plaza de Armas de Querétaro.  This is the tail end of the rainy season, so you can see what the city does to protect the musicians and the audience.  This fabric cover was huge.  It's also a little windy here and so things were blowing around a bit, but we weren't nervous at all.  Although lots of people were looking up instead of at the stage.

Note the podium, always a bad sign.  It means there will be speeches.

This was the inaugural event, and in the reserved seats in front were all the Panista muckity mucks and their spouses.  Three of them, including the Governor of the state, gave self-congratulatory speeches.  Very boring, but at least they were relatively brief.  And then came the music:

Here on keyboard is Steve Amirault from Montréal with side men Remi-Jean Leblanc and Gregory Ritchie:

Here's the trio (different side men) in a club setting.

Interesting to note that this festival, which is sponsored by government arts and tourism agencies, received not a mention in the monthly tourist publication, Asomarte, which is sponsored by the same agencies.  There were lots of puff pieces about local bars and after-dark activities, and major play given to the dance festival, which is happening concurrently.  We've noticed before that there is some divergence between the wide range of events provided here, many of them free of charge, and the ability of the sponsors to get the word out.